


Like Sunshine

by ashilrak



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 10:39:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9068095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashilrak/pseuds/ashilrak
Summary: He stepped out of line and made his way to the corner where Lafayette was, and Elizabeth followed. Hercules sent up a small prayer that Laf didn’t have headphones in, but was worried when Lafayette didn’t notice them as they approached. He got to the table, put his hand on Laf’s shoulder and kissed their cheek, “hey, babe.”Lafayette froze, but when they didn’t do anything more, Elizabeth huffed, turned on her foot, and left the cafe without buying coffee. Hercules let out a laugh, and sat down in the chair on the other side of the table across from Lafayette, “Sorry about that, the girl wouldn’t leave me alone. I saw you in the corner and I was like thank god there’s somewhere here I know. The only way to get rid of her seemed to be to say I wasn’t single.”Lafayette looked up, “Uh, it’s fine, but also, what the fuck.”Hercules got a good look at the person across from him, “holy fuck, you’re not Lafayette. Dude, I am so sorry.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [barricadebastard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/barricadebastard/gifts).



> This ship is my child

Alex had the tendency to go days without sleep - somehow summoning the energy to work for hours on end without pause. It hadn’t taken Hercules long to adjust, and he learned to stock up for the eventual crashes. 

Alex would come back to the dorm, fall into bed, and not wake up for at least 24 hours. When he did he’d be thirsty and starving with a headache. He’d always wake up in a terrible mood, and Hercules had figured out that the best way to greet him was with a glass of water, ibuprofen, and a protein bar. He had three boxes of the things on his shelf with Alex’s name written on them. After he made sure Alex was fed and watered, he’d hightail it out of the room to avoid the rant about how much Alex missed while he was sleeping.

There was a café nearby that Hercules could always find a table to sit at for however long was needed until he got an all clear text from someone – usually John, sometimes Alex. The baristas recognized him by face, but he wasn’t enough of a regular to have his order recognized and prepared for him the moment he walked in the door.

It was a small, but popular. Hercules wasn’t surprised when he walked in and found a line already formed. He stood behind some unfamiliar, blonde woman and pulled out his phone. The thought of asking if Alex wanted anything crossed his mind, but doing so would mean he’d be expected back earlier.

He pulled up Sudoku on his phone, and stepped forward as the line moved. After he had finished filling in all the obvious squares, the girl in front of him coughed and said, “Hi.”

Hercules didn’t look up, and she said, “Uh, hello? I’m talking to you?”

He looked up and found that she was smiling at him, even though she looked a little annoyed judging by the crease between her brows. He smiled back, “Uh, hi?”

The crease went away, “I’m Elizabeth!”

“Hercules.”

Her eyes widened, “Oh my god, like Disney!”

He felt himself get annoyed. Hercules knew that he shared a name with a disney character, but he also knew that his mother chose the name for strength and a bunch of other noble reasons because of it being from greek mythology. But he powered through it, and forced a smile on his face that anyone who knew him would recognize as unpleasant and said, “I guess.”

Elizabeth continued to smile, and took a step closer, “You’re really attractive.”

Hercules felt his brows raise and his eyes widen. He had a feeling this is what she had been trying to get at, but this was more forward and sudden and awkward than he expected. He took in a breath, “Uh, thanks.” 

He looked around, and hoped to catch the eyes of one of the baristas. Elizabeth seemed disappointed in his answer, and he needed a way out, fast. No one behind the counter looked at him, and he almost cried when he saw Lafayette hidden away in the corner of the cafe. Hercules didn’t know Lafayette wore glasses, but his relief overwhelmed any uncertainty.

The person waiting in front of Elizabeth had moved forward, so Hercules said, “I think you can move up now.”

She nodded, but her eyes glared, “Aren’t you going to ask for my number?”

He needed to figure this out, and his mind went to Lafayette in the corner. Lafayette would understand, and they’d always had a flair for the dramatic. Hercules shook his head, “No? I’m dating someone?”

Elizabeth’s face calmed, but she pouted, “Oh, really? What’s her name?”

“Uh, their name is Lafayette, and they’re right over there.” He pointed in the corner where Lafayette was hunched over their computer, taking a sip from their coffee. 

She didn’t believe him, and she put her hands on her hips and said, “You didn’t walk in with him.”

Hercules shrugged, “I’m meeting up with them? We don’t have to be attached at the hip constantly, you know.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He was done with her, “Why does it even matter?”

Elizabeth stuck her nose up in the air, “Well, I just think you’re being rude, is all.”

“I’m being rude because I’m not asking for your number after we’ve been talking for less than five minutes?”

She nodded.

He sighed, “fine, c’mon, watch and learn.” 

He stepped out of line and made his way to the corner where Lafayette was, and Elizabeth followed. Hercules sent up a small prayer that Laf didn’t have headphones in, but was worried when Lafayette didn’t notice them as they approached. He got to the table, put his hand on Laf’s shoulder and kissed their cheek, “hey, babe.”

Lafayette froze, but when they didn’t do anything more, Elizabeth huffed, turned on her foot, and left the cafe without buying coffee. Hercules let out a laugh, and sat down in the chair on the other side of the table across from Lafayette, “Sorry about that, the girl wouldn’t leave me alone. I saw you in the corner and I was thank god there’s somewhere here I know. The only way to get rid of her seemed to be to say I wasn’t single.”

Lafayette looked up, “Uh, it’s fine, but also, what the fuck.”

Hercules got a good look at the person across from him, “holy fuck, you’re not Lafayette. Dude, I am so sorry.”

“I am not Lafayette,” they shook their head, “but really, it’s fine. I saw you guys talking while in line, she didn’t seem to be that pleasant of a person.”

“She wasn’t. But seriously, let me buy you coffee or something to make it up to you.” He stretched his hand across the table, “I’m Hercules, by the way.”

Their grip was firm, “I’m Thomas, and large dirty chai.”

“What?”

Thomas laughed, “You’re buying me coffee, right?”

Hercules blinked, “I don’t think that’s coffee though.”

“It has coffee in it,” Thomas shrugged, “now go get me my coffee, also probably something for you since you never managed to make it to the register.”

Hercules chuckled and went to wait in the now shorter line. He ordered the dirty chai and a vanilla latte for himself. When he made his way back to the table Thomas was typing away at his computer.

He sat down, “Here you go, one large dirty chai.”

Thomas smiled, “Why, thank you.” 

Thomas’ smile was wide and bright, and it was overwhelming having it directed at him. Hercules distracted himself by taking a sip of his coffee, and Thomas started typing away. He could leave, he had gotten Thomas coffee, there wasn’t really a reason for him to stay. But Hercules didn’t want to leave, “you’re welcome. What are you working on?”

Hercules laughed a little bit when Thomas looked up surprised. Thomas blinked once and said, “Oh, uh, it’s for a project. It’s nothing too terrible, but we have to submit a paper for it and my partner has his own idea of what we’re doing which is different from what I thought we were doing and I was reading over the paper before he submits it and he changed a lot of what I thought we had gone with. He says I don’t understand the project, and he keeps insulting my writing - says it’s too simplified and childlike for a college paper.”

“Oh my god,” Hercules said, “that sounds terrible.”

Thomas nodded, “It is. Like, at first I didn’t think it’d be that bad. We disagree on most things, but this is something we’re both more neutral on. It’s on environmental policy - and it’s not that we’re neutral, but it’s not really either of ours main focus, and we aren’t on opposite sides of the spectrum for it, so neutral for us. He’s smart, and everyone knows he writes, but I hadn’t actually worked with him on anything before. But oh my god, the professor is going to hate this.”

“Why?”

Thomas raised a hand to his face, “becauses she likes essays to be very short and to the point, and his writing is so flowery jesus christ, honestly. And part of the assignment is that we each have to write a couple paragraphs about what we personally brought to the project and what he had to compromise on, and oh my god, I had already written mine but he keeps changing it.”

Hercules took another sip of his coffee, “that sucks,”

“I’m fucked.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Hercules shrugged, “my roommate always complains about this one kid who apparently is in complete disagreement with everything he says. Now, Alex is an over dramatic piece of shit, so I don’t know how true that is, but at least maybe you have a chance of talking this guy around. Point out that the professor is really picky about writing styles, but if you do a lot of writing for the class, he probably already knows. You seem like a reasonable guy, my roommate isn’t, so I know any suggestions I give him will be completely ignored. Actually, Alex would probably do the opposite of anything I suggest on principle.”

Thomas squinted, “are you actually friends with your roommate?”

“Yep, man’s lovable once you get past, well, everything that’s not.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Hercules chuckled, “does anything?”

Thomas shook his head and closed his laptop. He put his computer in his bag, and turned back and took a sip of his drink, “Does your roommate’s name happen to be Alexander Hamilton by any chance?”

Hercules almost spit out his coffee, but he managed to swallow it just in time and said, “You said your name is Thomas, right? Does this mean you happen to be the infamous Thomas Jefferson?”

Thomas laughed, and Hercules wondered how he was supposed to feel any sort of dislike towards someone who looked so bright when he smiled. Alex had spent hours ranting about him, but Hercules couldn’t summon any of that old annoyance when he was distracted by the question of if Thomas’ skin was as soft as it looked. 

Thomas ran a hand through his hair and said, “I would be him.”

“Oh my god, I’ve heard so much about you. I formed this image, and you don’t fit into it at all,” Hercules let out a small laugh, “I’m so sorry you have to deal with Alex, man, no one deserves that.”

“Says the man who is his roommate.”

Hercules put his hand over his heart, “It’s the family thing. I walked into my room, saw his skinny ass, and adopted him on sight. Just because I love him doesn’t mean I always like him.”

“I can respect that,” Thomas smiled, “my roommate is an old friend of mine, but oh my god, he’s always sick, and I worry about him all the time - so I guess I get what you mean about adopting someone on sight in a weird way.”

He took another sip of his coffee and then lifted it, “mom friends of the world unite.”

The conversation kinda rambled on after that, and never settled on one topic. Thomas was a polisci major from Virginia. His smile was like sunshine, and every time he laughed, Hercules found himself laughing along. It was nice, and pleasant, and after they had both finished their drinks and realized they should each go on with their rest of their days, Hercules felt giddiness rise in his chest when Thomas insisted they exchange numbers.

Hercules wasn’t sure how it happened, but somehow he ended up texting Thomas everyday. At first it had just been the typical, “hey, it’s Hercules,” to make sure he had the right number, but Thomas had replied with a complaint that he had stepped in a puddle, and the conversation didn’t really stop.

It was nice to have someone he could shoot random thoughts off to, and Thomas was the type who talking about anything and everything in-depth and with feeling. Hercules found himself falling into the routine of pulling out his phone and texting Thomas the moment anything worth mentioning happened.

Meeting up for coffee again didn’t seem weird, and the conversation flowed. Thomas started to tell funny stories and share jokes, referencing things he had texted Hercules over the week. He would always look to the side when he was in the middle of a retelling of something, and wouldn’t look at Hercules again until he was finished. He always ordered a dirty chai, and he’d always take a sip of it and burn his tongue, even though he knew it was too hot.

It became a routine - at least once a week, they’d meet up for coffee and sit at the same table and just talk. Hercules looked forward to the meetings, and would always leave feeling better than he had before he walked into the coffee shop.

Alex was the one who said something about it. Hercules had been grabbing his scarf to meet Thomas for coffee when Alex stopped him and asked, “where are you going? Do you have a date? I think you’re hiding someone from us? Do you have a boyfriend now? A girlfriend? Why haven’t I met them yet? Hercules, I’m your roommate, you’re not supposed to keep these things from me.”

“Uh,” Hercules had become frozen, “I’m still single?”

He must have given something away because Alex’s eyes had lit up, “But you have a crush! You’re hopping to not become single! Good luck! I want to meet them. Now go, go charm the pants off of them.” Alex shoved him out the door, and Hercules put his beanie on his head with new thoughts running through his mind.

Hercules supposed it made sense. For the most part, Alex was pretty oblivious, but once he actually noticed something, he’d snoop until he figured out every part of it. He must have saw that Hercules was texting someone, and connected it to his frequent coffee shop visits.

He stepped outside and unzipped his jacket and undid his scarf, as the weather was warmer than he expected. When he got to the coffee shop, he saw that Thomas wasn’t sitting at their usual table, so he got in line. 

Being single was something Hercules had gotten used to, but there was something tempting about the idea of not being single with Thomas. He’d be lying if he tried to tell himself he hadn’t gotten distracted by the sight of sunshine coming through the window and shining on Thomas’ face. The man was beyond gorgeous, but it was like he didn’t know it, going by how shy he was at times. 

The more Hercules got to know Thomas, the more he liked Thomas. He wanted to date Thomas, and the more he thought about, the more clear that was. He got their coffees, and determination grew in him as he walked to their table.

Hercules sat alone in the corner for less than five minutes before Thomas walked in and sat down, “sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine, Tommy,” he slid the drink over, and returned Thomas’ smile. 

He chuckled to himself when he saw Thomas take a drink and wince and set his drink back down.

They sat in silence, both staring outside. It was a nice day. The sun was out, and the snow was melting. It was the sort of day that marked the beginning of spring. It was the perfect day for new beginnings, and Hercules took a sip of his latte to steel himself and said, “hey, it’s nice out, there’s a park nearby, let’s go on a walk.”

Thomas looked surprised, but he smiled and nodded, “that sounds perfect. I was actually thinking about that on my way here - wasn’t sure if I wanted to ask though.”

Hercules shrugged, “I get that, now come on.”

He stood up and held out his hand to help Thomas out of his seat with a joking grin on his face, and was surprised when Thomas took it, “Why thank you, good sir.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Hercules did his best to disguise the disappointment from his tone when Thomas dropped his hand.

The park was only about a ten minute walk away, and they spent it in a comfortable silence, sipping their coffees and basking in the sun. 

When they got there and started down a path, Hercules made sure to step closer to Thomas, and smiled to himself when Thomas didn’t move away, but instead seemed to welcome the closeness. The trees were still bare, and the snow wasn’t completely melted, but it was beautiful just the same. 

Hercules took in a deep breath, “So, Thomas, there’s something I want to ask you, or tell you. I’m not sure, it depends.”

“Depends on what?” asked and looked over at him. 

Hercules chuckled and looked toward the sky before he looked straight ahead and said, “Well, I think I might have a crush on you.”

He didn’t know how to describe how he was feeling after the last syllable left his mouth. It was a weird pressure against his chest, and the awareness that this could very well ruin their friendship if Thomas didn’t feel the same. If Thomas did though, the risk would be worth it, and that was what Hercules clung onto. He was so focused on his own worries that he didn’t hear it when Thomas started talking.

“Herc, Hercules, Herc,” Thomas shoved his shoulder against Hercules’ arm and said, “You know, I think I might have a crush on you too.”

“What, really?”

Thomas smiled at him, with a flush on his cheeks, “yes, really.”

Hercules started to laugh, unable to stifle the joy and relief that rose in his chest. He turned to Thomas and wrapped his arms tight around the other man and said, “oh my god, I’m so happy right now.” He stepped away, and his breath was taken away by the sight of Thomas’ sparkling eyes and wide grin, “you’re beautiful. I’ve been wanting to tell you that forever now, but now that you know about my totally huge and embarrassing crush on you, I feel less weird telling you.”

Thomas looked down, but then looked back up and said, “when you first came over to avoid that girl in the coffee shop I was trying to figure out why such a hot guy was talking to me, let alone kissing me.”

Hercules laughed, “do you mean to tell me that I could have asked you out then and there and we could have been dating this entire time?”

“I don’t know if I would have said yes, I get nervous sometimes, but possibly.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Thomas’ forehead, “then, in that case, I’m happy I waited.” He raised his head, “Wait, is that okay? That I kissed you? This is sudden and weird but also I really wanted to.”

Thomas shook his head and smiled, “It’s perfect, but I must insist that you ask me out first before you do it again.”

“Holy shit you’re right, let me do this properly.” Hercules grabbed Thomas hand, “Will you, Thomas Jefferson, go on a date with me?”

Thomas laughed, “I’ll do you one better - Hercules Mulligan, will you accept this walk in the woods as our first date?”

“I’d love to.”

Thomas smiled wide, and it was brighter than the sun.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> There's not enough of this ship tbh, and I bond over it with Lafayettes_Baguette, so we decided to do a Jeffercles exchange - he's an amazing writer so go check it out ;;; )))
> 
> Please feel free to come pester me on my tumblr: [ashilrak](http://ashilrak.tumblr.com/)
> 
> <3 <3 <3 <3 <3


End file.
